| Author | Message | ||
     Yellow_xb9s |
First, I want to say that I love my Lightning! My face hurts from smiling so much while riding. What's more, I got a great deal on it. $7995 and 3.99% for 36 months. One thing that bothers me, however, is that only one headlight is burning at any given time. Of course you guys/gals know this. :-) I'd love to "re-wire" them so both run simultaneously. Is this easy to do? Can someone explain how? thanks in advance | ||
| Leeaw |
I believe my XB9R has both headlights on high beam, so maybe the dealer can help you with the swap. I have had mine for a month now. Exact same price and 3.9% for 3 years. Just one of those deals you cannot pass up. | ||
| Chaser |
Here are some options http://www.britnett.net/trojanhorse/listings/126.html http://www.britnett.net/trojanhorse/listings/113.html | ||
| Darthane |
Yellow, I don't know about the XB9Ss, but the 9Rs do indeed have both bulbs burning while on high beam. In any event, all you'd have to do is wire the power from the low beam over to the high beam bulb as well. Words of caution, though, if the Lightning is indeed set up so that only one light is on at any given time, then the fuse may not be rated high enough to handle both lights on constantly. Also, doing that means that you have no 'high beam' or flash to pass capability. Some people were hunting around for good, dual-filament bulbs for Lightnings and Firebolts, but I don't know if they ever found them. If you do, they're very easy to wire in, you'd only have to do two splices. Bryan | ||
| Cj_xb |
only one headlight is burning at any given time. Same here, and being anal that REALLY bugs me !! Other than that and the squeeking back brake, I LOVE my bike !!! CJ XB  | ||
| Henrik |
you have no 'high beam' or flash to pass capability Could the flash button be wired to cut the high beam instead?? Then you'd still have an alternating light, just going from high to low instead of the other way? Just a suggestion Henrik | ||
| Ghostrider |
Well, I'd also be interested in something that lit up the turn indicators all the time and then flashed them off and on when I activated the turn signal. Any little bit to help improve nighttime visibility would be good. | ||
| Darthane |
Henrik, If memory serves, the high beam on XBs does not currently use a relay - you'd need to add one to create a cut-out circuit. Not difficult from a logical standpont, but perhaps daunting if you're not sure of what you're doing. If anyone really wants to know, though, I could outline the process for them. Bryan | ||
| Brucelee |
If you put the switch in the middle, both lights will come on. There is concern about the relay though. I am going to buy a low beam light and replace the high beam. Then I am going to leave the switch in the middle and run both lights. | ||
| Darthane |
Ghostrider, What you're describing can also be accomplished via a cut-out relay, depending on the flasher strategy. If you really want to know how, send me an e-mail and I will consult my handy-dandy service manual and tell you how. Bryan | ||
| Geofg |
I was under the impression that the low and hi beams on the R are the same light, just with a shroud on the low beam. I'd be up for duel-filimant lights if they're out there. -Geof | ||
| Court |
By the way...it *IS* Legal to modualate the headlights on a motorcycles (kinda like police car wig-wags). I have a copy of the letter stating the position of the Feds which trumps any local regulations a long as you are on a road that has any Fed $$ behind it. I've learned, in New York City, to make a HUGE (as in lights and concealed airhorns) to make certain my approach to an intersection is WELL comunicated to the oncoming traffic. My current project is adapting a Motorola Syntor XX Systems 9000 law enforcement siren with the air horm and welp funtion...mounting is a problem. Court | ||
| Darthane |
Geof, The bulbs are the same, the housings are, as you noted, different. And apparently it's not as simple as opening the housing and removing the shroud. Bryan | ||
| Chaser |
For the R a second high beam assembly was only 40 bucks at the dealership. Its probably cheap for the S as well. | ||
| Yellow_xb9s |
Hey Guys, Thanks for all the information... This probably isn't the best solution, but I de-soldered the two wires from the "passing flasher" switch and simply soldered them together. It seems to be working fine so far. | ||
| Apex1 |
Getting the switch to stick between the low & high positions yields both bulbs burning simultaneously on the XB9S (as pointed out previously by Brucelee). I've been using this method for several months now with no problems. Hope this helps. | ||
| Aussie_buell |
Guys, This is a post I posted on another site, apoligies for the length. If you want both headlights on when you are on high beam, all you have to do is open the switch block on your handle bars where the high/low beam switch is. And perminately connect the Yellow and Blue wires by either soldering directly to the switch or by using a wire splice to join the wires. If you use the soldering technique, be careful not to put too much heat into the plastic switch. It might be an idea also to check that you bike is wired the same as mine by using a small piece of wire held onto the blue and yellow soldering points on the switch and test the high beam. Try not to wiggle the wires or you may short and blow a fuse or bulb. Essentially all you are doing is bypassing the switch that turns low beam off, and tapping the power straight into to low beam circuit so it is always on regardless of the switch position. In more detail: I believe that the Blue wire is the ‘hot’ wire. And the yellow is the wire that goes to the light. There is 3 wires, the other is white and that one seemingly goes to the high beam. The way I understand it is that the Blue hot wire feeds the power into the switch, from there it s either switched to one side for low beam or the other side for high beam. What we want to do is by pass the low beam switch by connecting the blue to the yellow. If you want to you could cut the yellow wire and join it to the blue how ever I strongly suggest that if you just use an extra piece of wire and loop it from the blue wire where it connects to the switch to the yellow wire where it connects to the switch (on the solder points) then you will have joined the hot wire into the low beam circuit to be powered all the time no matter what the position of the switch. Basically you have turned the switch into a high beam switch on and off rather then a switch that’s alternates from high to low. And by not cutting into the wires and just looping a new wire you have not disturbed the original system and it can be converted back easily if there was a need to (ie: heat problems that may occur). Please dont hesitate to ask again if its still not clear. | ||
| Fullpower |
thanks aussie B. just finished the constant lo beam mod as per your instructions. i just soldered a jumper in between the blue and yellow. works just right. thanks for the info, and the patient explanation. also i can highly recommend the PIAA H7 Extreme White bulbs. they work very well. real bright, only 55 watts each, so they should not melt anything. regards, deano | ||
| Bradyclt |
I just did the "low beam on all the time" mod on my '03 XB9SL (thanks to Jasonxb12s for the proof of concept), and what Aussie_buell says is right on the money. With the switch assembly open I probed and prodded with the voltmeter and concur: the blue wire is input to the switch, the yellow is output to the low, and the white is output to high. Rather than bridging yellow and blue, I just moved yellow to blue's solder terminal which bypasses the switch for low beam. The 'flash to pass' button operates in the same fashion as before: with low beam only it momentarily activates high; with high beam already on there's no effect. As far as amperage goes, I have two answers: Since there's only one 'lamps' fuse and the system is already wired to support high and low simultaneously (flash to pass) then all is OK. But, I went ahead and did the homework and it checks out: 15A circuit, 10.5A load with all lights lit (4.58 per headlight (x2), 0.59 for tail, 0.37 for plate, and 0.17 per turn signal (x2); the brake light is on the horn circuit. The instrument lighting might come into play too, but I doubt that pulls more than 0.1A. My only doubt was the size of the blue wire, which appears to my eye 20AWG (but in all honesty is probably 18). If the wire was sized to only handle one light at a time there'd be problems, but 18AWG is good to 16A in 12V chassis installs and 20AWG (smaller) is good to 11. So, there's a good margin built in from a wire capacity/fusing perspective. (I think this is Darthane's area of expertise... please correct me if incorrect). Also, earlier in the thread I saw some talk about the differences between the Firebolt and Lightning headlamp design. I'll speak to the Lightning since that's what I have. The system is identical in concept to my GTI: Two single filament H7/55w bulbs in a single housing, each bulb in its own reflector... the design of each reflector makes it either high beam or low, not the bulb itself (since they're identical). And, the position of each reflector with respect to the other is fixed... meaning that you cannot adjust high and low independently of the other; you have to adjust the entire housing which will move both reflectors. My car though keeps the lows on even when the highs are on... not sure why the Lightning is wired OEM to do one or the other but not both. | ||
| Darthane |
Brady, Your math checks out - and you're right about the rated amperages of the different gauge sizes. I can't check the wire size (does it list wire sizes in the schematics of the bike's electronics in the service manuals?), but even if it is 20GA it shouldn't pose a problem. Aside from the math of the matter, you have better proof - your bikes all run fine without blowing stuff up. I do have two questions, though, and this isn't meant to make any of you question what you did to the bikes. I thought the FTP on the XB*S actually kills the low when the high came on? I know it doesn't on my Firebolt, but they are meant to run with both lamps on at high. If that's true, then the average lighting load drops closer to 6A, in which case it most likely is 20GA. Also, when you turn on the 'parking lamps' on your bike, does it turn on all the signals, tail, license, and headlamps? This drags the total current to 10.8 or so, pushing the 11A limit. I will say, however, that those figures are usually a little on the conservative side, and given that the wire length on a motorcycle is necessarily short, still shouldn't pose a problem. Another person had asked me about this before, and we came up with a clean, worry-free solution, but it was much more involved. A description of it can be found in the KV's electrical section. (Oh, and thanks for asking my opinion - a little flattery like that brightens the day! LOL) | ||
| Bradyclt |
Hi... Thanks for the response. I don't have the schematics, originally I had planned to use 18AWG stranded as a bridge between blue (switch input) and yellow (output to low beam) which looked to be just slightly larger (number of strands) than what was already wired into the switch, which is why I'm guessing 20AWG. On my bike the FTP pre-mod didn't cut the low , just lit the high as long as the button was depressed. Post-mod it functions the same. Pre-mod the dimmer switch is an either/or: low or high but not both (unless in low with FTP depressed). In all honesty, I'm not exactly certain what's lit up in park vs. run, but I believe the only difference is park cuts the headlights. And speaking of this, I'm gonna go off on a tangent: I lived in Germany for 4 years and one of the easiest ways to tell at night if a car is built to Euro or American specs is if the front turn signals contain dual filament bulbs which do double duty as running lights (American spec). Over there the turn signals only emit light when, well, signaling a turn. Their version of running lights are a little 5 watt auxillary bulb in the headlight reflector so oncoming drivers can still see something if the main bulb is out. These little bulbs also serve as the parking lights. My point is that I was very surprised that my Lightning did not have the traditional style amber running lights in the front turn signals, as both my US spec Kawasakis did (and the same models sold over there did not). Even more surprising is the lack of a 4-way flasher on the Buell. I've already had one occasion where that would've come in handy. I though all this stuff was mandated by the DOT. Are the bike lighting standards looser than those for cars? Back to the original discussion... Darthane, your questions gave me some food for thought and after thinking more about it, from the blue wire's perspective the headlights are wired in parallel. I have forgotten most of what I ever knew of Ohm's Law, but do remember that in series circuits things are additive but not so in parallel circuits. The voltage is the same in either case, but I think the total resistance is less for a parallel scenario. So my original assertion is probably wrong in that I added the total amps for the lights and should've applied the Law to end up with a different result. [30 minutes later] Looked up the formula for parallel circuits and where the resistive loads are the same the current is indeed additive. So 9.2A across the blue wire it is (assuming it powers just the headlights, hopefully). Had they been wired in series (illegal I believe; and plain dumb) the resistances are additive, making the load just 2.3A. This discussion has put my mind at ease... I hate modifying anything because I figure the engineers getting paid to make this stuff know best. But, having both lights on is beneficial for seeing and being seen. | ||
| Darthane |
My possible concern for the total current overloading the wire size wasn't based on the wire size at the switch (although now that I read it again that's what it sounded like), but at the fuse that feeds all of them. You're correct that the switch itself should only be feeding the headlamps, which is only a tad over 9A, but if the feed from the fuse itself, before branching to the various lights, is 20GA, then it's pulling close to the limit. But, like I said, you've all got the best proof you need - they work, no blown fuses and no melted wires! | ||
| Bradyclt |
>Hey there... I posted the following on that discussion thread. Thanks for you quick response and insight. > > > >Hi... > Thanks for the response. I don't have the schematics, originally I had >planned to use 18AWG stranded as a bridge between blue (switch input) and >yellow (output to low beam) which looked to be just slightly larger (number >of strands) than what was already wired into the switch, which is why I'm >guessing 20AWG. On my bike the FTP >pre-mod didn't cut the low , just lit the high as long as the button was >depressed. Post-mod it functions the same. Pre-mod the dimmer switch is >an either/or: low or high but not both (unless in low with FTP >depressed). In all honesty, I'm not exactly certain what's lit up in park >vs. run, but I believe the only difference is park cuts the headlights. > >And >speaking of this, I'm gonna go off on a tangent: I lived in Germany for >4 years and one of the easiest ways to tell at night if a car is built to >Euro >or American specs is if the front turn signals contain dual filament bulbs >which do double duty as running lights (American spec). Over there the turn >signals only emit light when, well, signaling a turn. Their version of running >lights are a little 5 watt auxillary >bulb in the headlight reflector so oncoming drivers can still see something >if the main bulb is out. These little bulbs also serve as the parking lights. > My point is that I was very surprised that my Lightning did not have the >traditional style amber running lights in the front turn signals, as both >my US spec Kawasakis >did (and the same models sold over there did not). Even more surprising >is the lack of a 4-way flasher on the Buell. I've already had one occasion >where that would've come in handy. I though all this stuff was mandated >by the DOT. Are the bike lighting standards looser than those for cars? > > >Back to the original discussion... Darthane, >your questions gave me some food for thought and after thinking more about >it, from the blue wire's perspective the headlights are wired in parallel. > I have forgotten most of what I ever knew of Ohm's Law, but do remember >that in series circuits things are additive but not so in parallel circuits. > The voltage is the same in either case, but I think the total resistance >is less for a parallel scenario. So my original assertion is probably wrong >in that I added the total amps for the lights and should've applied the Law >to end up with a different result. [30 minutes later] Looked up the formula >for parallel circuits and where the resistive loads are the same the current >is indeed additive. So 9.2A across the blue wire it is (assuming it powers >just the headlights, hopefully). Had they been wired in series (illegal I >believe; and plain dumb) the resistances are additive, making the load just >2.3A. > >This discussion has put my mind at ease... I hate modifying >anything because I figure the engineers getting paid to make this stuff know >best. But, having both lights on is beneficial for seeing and being seen. | ||
| Fresnobuell |
you have no 'high beam' or flash to pass capability Could the flash button be wired to cut the high beam instead?? Then you'd still have an alternating light, just going from high to low instead of the other way? Excerpt from this post about getting both headlamps to light with high beam switch on......can this be done? Easily? |
